5/30/2018–University of Delaware alumna Dr. Nicole Belolan was recently appointed to the position of Public Historian in Residence at The Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities (MARCH) at Rutgers-Camden and the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) effective August 13, 2018. While contributing to programs and publications at MARCH, she will serve as co-editor of The Public Historian, the leading journal in the field of public history, and Digital Media Editor for National Council on Public History (NCPH).
Belolan earned her Ph.D. in History of American Civilization from the University of Delaware under the direction of Prof. Katherine Grier and master’s degrees from Delaware in History and from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture. While at Delaware, she worked with the IMLS-funded Sustaining Places project. In her research field of disability history, she has published peer-reviewed academic articles as well as essays for general audiences. She is a Public Scholars Project Speaker for the New Jersey Council for the Humanities on the topic “Disabilities Then, Disabilities Now.”
12/14/2017–History graduate students Nora Carleson, Harriette Lane and Erica Lome will be joining Professor Zara Anishanslin at the inaugural Postgraduate Exchange in Visual and Material Culture at Queen Mary University of London January 17-19, 2018. Students and faculty will spend three-days exploring methods, approaches, and new research in Visual and Material Culture. The exchange offers postgraduate students a chance to present research where their primary evidence base is visual and material culture. Participants will also have an opportunity to take part in a workshop to explore theoretical approaches to material culture, attend a keynote address, as well as a hands-on workshop in historic plaster making and a private tour of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The material culture symposium, Domesticating Revolution, will feature Dr. Anishanslin as the event’s keynote speaker where she will present “Patriotic Women, Military Men and the Material Culture of Bringing Battle Home.”
10/11/2016–Ph.D. Candidate Nicole Belolan can now add the title of Curator and Professor to her list of achievements as her journey in academia continues. Nicole’s recently accepted a position as the Megan Giordano Fellow at Rowan University teaching courses in public history. Additionally, she is now the curator at Red Bank Battlefield, Fort Mercer, and the Whithall House in National Park, New Jersey. She’ll be splitting her time teaching history through objects and putting her expansive knowledge of early American material culture to use. What more can you ask of a soon-to-be AmCiv alum?
Nicole is also completing her dissertation, “Navigating the World: The Material Culture of Physical Mobility Impairment in the Early American North, 1728-1861,” which is about material culture and physical disability in early America.
10/11/2016–AmCiv alum Laura Johnson (Class of 2010) is the author of the first book to focus exclusively on the history of jewelry made and worn in New England, entitled Keepsakes and Treasures: Stories from Historic New England’s Jewelry Collection. As the Associate Curator at Historic New England, Laura is in the perfect position to study the wealth of objects of adornment in their collection. The book will be followed by an exhibition at HNE in 2017 that will feature remarkable examples of jewelry ranging from wedding rings to mourning brooches. As Laura puts it, the exhibition will showcase “jewelry’s unique role as a public display of personal history.”
Laura’s dissertation through the American Civilization Program was “Material Translations: Cloth in Early American Encounters, 1520-1750.” We’re excited for Laura’s continued success in the world of material culture and eagerly anticipate future projects.